Monday Open Thread
Welcome to your Monday open thread. Did you have a nice weekend? I certainly did. I went to see the last Harry Potter movie (*sniffle sniffle* Snape) and I’m picking out my birthday couch. So much excitement!
Business Insider has an interesting column from last week called “IT’S OFFICIAL: The Whole World Thinks Republicans Are Dangerous Maniacs Threatening Everyone.” Here’s a taste:
Yes, the rest of the world is watching this embarrassing debt ceiling nonsense, and it is growing dismayed.
Der Spiegel has a roundup of commentary in German newspapers about the fight, and the universal message is this:
The US is holding the entire world hostage, and it’s the Republicans that are playing with fire.
Hard to accuse the Germans (who are no fans of fiscal profligacy) of being motivated by politics, or of having some inherent reason to attack Republicans. This is just the reality of what they’re doing.
One thing I don’t look forward to this week is more of this debt ceiling nonsense. Just raise the frickin’ thing already. It’s not hard.
Ben is troubled by your signing of a 14-point pro-marriage pledge at the request of the Family Leader, an Iowa social conservative group. It’s not only the part about black kids being better off under slavery than they are today that caught his eye. (Yes, he knows that language was dropped after you signed the pledge.) It’s the verbiage about sexuality being a choice.
You signed a document that challenges the belief that sexuality is predetermined. The Family Leader pledge laments that marriage is “debased” by, among other things, an “antiscientific bias which holds, in complete absence of empirical proof, that nonheterosexual inclinations are genetically determined, irresistible, and akin to innate traits like race, gender, and eye color.”
See, my friend and former intern Ben is gay. And he never made any such choice.
Your thinking is nothing new and it runs in your family.
In 2004, at the National Education Leadership Conference, you said of the gay lifestyle: “It’s a very sad life. It’s part of Satan, I think, to say this is gay. It’s anything but gay.”
Then there’s your husband, Marcus, who obtained his Ph.D. by virtue of a correspondence course. He runs a mental-health clinic but, according to Politico, is not registered with any of the three state boards that certify mental health practitioners. (Minnesota is one of the only states in which you can practice mental health without a license.) Last year, when asked during a radio interview about parenting homosexual children, he said:
“We have to understand: barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined. Just because someone feels it or thinks it doesn’t mean that we are supposed to go down that road. That’s what is called the sinful nature. We have a responsibility as parents and as authority figures not to encourage such thoughts and feelings from moving into the action steps. . .”
This is why Republicans seem doomed in the long run. They are out-of-step with younger people.
Tags: Open Thread
Does anybody still believe Obama just needs to wait until business interests call and persuade Republicans to cave on the debt talks?
I am stunned, Puck. I can’t believe that the Tea Party has more power than business interests, but it appears so. Scary stuff.
A few days ago I thought… how in the hell do Republicans ever vote to raise the debt ceiling? I haven’t reached an answer. As of now, I’m leaning strongly toward default. What a mess… for everyone.
Boehner is right; Obama is like Jello. I think we all understand now Obama is the grown-up because he is flexible and willing to compromise. That point has been made. But now he needs to go to the American people, lay down his demands, and close the deal. I’m not sure how much more mileage is left in being flexible.
Obama needs to tell voters that we can’t cut our way back to growth and jobs. Remind them of 1992, when every Republican voted against deficit reduction and predicted disaster, but we got jobs and a balanced budget instead. They were wrong then and they are wrong now.
Explain that we don’t need to choose between spending cuts and tax increases – we need to do both. The polls are on his side; now he needs to capitalize on public opinion and start the pendulum swinging against the Republican budget viewpoint.
Explain that we can once again afford to argue about taxes, as soon as we fix this crisis.
“I can’t believe that the Tea Party has more power than business interests”
The Tea Party is their shock troops. If by “business interests” you mean “wealthy investors,” then they cannot wait for the brief but fatal business surge that will ensue when the Tea Party eliminates investment taxes and estate taxes, which will enable the rich to retire in comfort in gated communities amid the crumbling Max Max society they have created.
The Tea Partiers will be very surprised when they find themselves on the other side of the gate. And the nation’s shopkeepers will be cursing themselves for eternity wondering why they ever aligned themselves with the rich instead of with wage-earners.
If by “business interests” you mean “wealthy investors,” then they cannot wait for the brief but fatal business surge that will ensue when the Tea Party eliminates investment taxes and estate taxes, which will enable the rich to retire in comfort in gated communities amid the crumbling Max Max society they have created.
I agree that that is the end goal, but if the Tea Party refuses to raise the debt ceiling aren’t we looking at an entirely different ballgame?
If you think that Lockheed, GE and the multitudes of big government contractors are not in Congressional offices making the case the increasing the debt limit, you would be quite mistaken. I do know for a fact that a DC lobbyist representing a small business group with a certain focus has appointments this week. And like much of the lobbying in America, it doesn’t happen in public.
What we already know is that Boehner is doing his show votes early this week. And that Reid/McConnell are working on something that will likely not to be to the advantage of Democrats. I’d be willing to bet that the grand bargain revenue increases are no longer on the table and everyone is working towards the solution that keeps minimal GOP fingerprints on the final deal.
If you think that Lockheed, GE and the multitudes of big government contractors are not in Congressional offices making the case the increasing the debt limit, you would be quite mistaken
Of course they are, but which offices? I am sure they are not out there encouraging Republicans to vote for tax increases in the interests of making a deal.
Dem Congressmen, including our own, are lining up and falling over themselves to signal their eagerness to accept Republican provisions and get nothing in return.
By apparently holding out for tax increases against enormous pressure, Obama is at this moment the best Democrat in America. Until further notice.
Exactly, Cassandra. This game is in flux and everything rests on how crazy the Tea Party is when it comes to the debt ceiling. Business likes the Tea Party so long as they follow orders, if they don’t raise the debt ceiling… all bets, and alliances, are off.
Decisions, decisions:
Get paid for ongoing billions of dollars of work you have under contract and are PERFORMING NOW
OR
live with some minor rejiggering of the tax code. Knowing that you are Lockheed, GE, et al and you *always* get a second bite at the apple.
Notice Obama said Social Security checks might not go out after Aug. 2.
Checks to Halliburton apparently will be fine, probably fast-tracked under some national security exemption.
Checks to contractors may not be fine.
My Federal clients have sent a heads up that we may need to shut sites dowm, so we should be thinking of planning for it.
I wonder how much loophole-queen GE would lose in a short shutdown, as opposed to the permanent closing of loopholes that Obama is demanding?
I’m not sure about the taxonomic value of calling Obama a “left neo-liberla”, but everything else here adds up.
Progressive change in this country (at least after the Civil War) has almost always happened through mass movement politics eventually electing politicians to office to enact desired changes or forcing reluctant politicians to go along…
So to sum up–being right about policy is often irrelevant unless you have a mass movement of people behind you ready to engage in collective action to see those policies enacted.
I’m not buying this. It sets the bar too high for Democrats, and gives leadership a pass. With this theory of political action, leftward movement is virtually impossible, while the conservative agenda marches on with no such restrictions.
Progressive movements have also historically been driven by mass poverty and deprivation. With the advent of the safety net, perhaps the kind of deprivation that launches progressive movements may have been abolished or at least blunted. Now we just have the fake outrage by comfortable teabag pensioners who think their liberty is being infringed on.
Clinton enacted his deficit reduction plan in 1992 without a mass movement. Reagan enacted his 1982 tax increases without a mass movement. Bush enacted his tax cuts without a mass movement.
Obama could damn well close a few tax loopholes with or without me, if he put his mind to it.
Republicans put more emphasis on leadership and hold their leaders accountable mercilessly. They have thrown GWB and McCain under the bus for not being conservative enough, yet we Dems cannot abide a conversation about Obama’s failings.
This strategy works for Repubs very well – not necessarily by electing more Republicans, but by getting Democrats to support more Republican ideas.
I am constantly amazed how intelligent and powerful people willing to break the law in sophisticated ways are completely ignorant about how to ditch electronic evidence. I mean, did Anthony Weiner really think nobody would figure out who posted the weiner? A simple CD inserted, a few commands typed, and your hard disk is as pure as the driven snow. But no-ooo. We get whole laptops in dumpsters, denials of responsibility, all the while your former friends are holding the cyber equivalent of a blue dress with your DNA on it.
I think the new standard is, if you really need to get rid of electronic evidence, post it on DelawareLiberal.
Come on, corrupt politicians, bribeseekers, bribepayers, pay-to-play schemers… post your evidence here next Friday. It will be gone beyond all hope of recovery before lunchtime.
I’m not buying this. It sets the bar too high for Democrats, and gives leadership a pass. With this theory of political action, leftward movement is virtually impossible, while the conservative agenda marches on with no such restrictions.
And you would be ignoring the signature pieces of progressive movement in this country. None of which happened from the top down. It happened because there was a groundswell of energy for such a chance — and that groundswell of energy counts as political cover to do this thing.
For Democratic leadership in the Congress, this is almost always hard. Recently, is in supporting progressive causes that they damage themselves. It happened after Civil Rights and happened after the Great Society. Democrats get the cause of justice alot faster than you can get them to act on it. Republicans aren’t even working on the project of justice (much less in governing), and their constituency and coalition is much narrower — so they can impose more discipline and face much less backlash.
Screw leadership that won’t move left without a “groundswell” certified by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and David Brooks. That is ceding economic policy to Republicans for all eternity.
The Great Society Democrats got hammered by Reagan because they overrereached and didn’t pause to consolidate their gains after their initial successes (which included Medicare).
Bullshit.
This is instructive as *groundswell* — from Ezra Klein’s blog during a recent interview with Stan Collender:
Right? It is a damn rare thing for progressives to insist on their POV this way. Live and in person. Progressives like to take to the internets and complain about how everyone else is screwing up and letting them down. That’s not how anyone gets held accountable. And they *DO* react to constituents, especially in numbers. Applying this pressure is work, but applying this pressure ≠getting all emo online with people who aren’t going to be any more energized than you.
That was a great article, Jason. I agree wholeheartedly that turning loose OFA after the election was a serious mistake. And I think that the description of Obama’s political style sort of ignores his own very smart distinction between very smart policy and politics. But this is in line with my own argument that progressives have to get way better at the *politics* to be heard and pull the conversation leftward.
I feel lost and afraid because Twitter is down.